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Everyone has heard the advice to always use a PIN, password, or pattern lock on your phone. This is hugely important in today's day and age. If someone gained access to my Google account now, it could be catastrophic due to the amount that Google knows about me. Everyone also knows how annoying it is to put in a passcode every time you want to change something on your phone. Most people, like myself, probably hear about someone getting their account taken over or identity stolen and they set their phone up with a password, only to remove it almost immediately once it annoys you sufficiently.

Apple's new iPhone did a good job with the fingerprint scanning to make it super easy to have that setup, however until that comes to Android, we're stuck with passcodes/PINs/patterns/etc.

One solution is to only require a code when you're away from home, in the scary waters of the real world. This, unfortunately, is something that is not baked into Android and requires some tweaking to get working. Here's how we suggest getting it working.

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Quest:

Only have a lock screen when away from home. Be "set it and forget it" simple. Not have to have an app running in the foreground all the time, annoying you in your notifications.

Assumptions:

Location based look-up is too battery intensive. My home will always have my wifi router on and functioning. Anyone evil who gets my phone will not be near my home.

Solutions:

Option One. Delayed Lock - $2.99 - here's a how to link. The reason we didn't use this is because we already bought Tasker and can easily do the same with that wonderful app.

Option Two. Tasker - $2.99 - how to below. We like this because Tasker is more than a single purpose app and is infinitely useful for a huge number of actions. If you're going to spend $3, why not spend it on Tasker?

Tasker Option Steps:

2. In Secure Settings app, enable "Password/PIN" under Options > Dev Admin Actions. It will now be a selectable Task plugin configuration in Tasker.

3. In Tasker, create a profile + task for leaving the house:

A. New Profile > State > Net > Wifi Connected

SSID:Your router's SSID (you can choose multiple SSIDs "/" delimited)

Invert: Checked (meaning when you are NOT connected to this wifi)

B. New Task > (blank name) > Add Action > Plugin > Secure Settings

Configuration edit > Password/PIN (under Dev Admin Actions)

NOTE: You can choose Pattern or Face lock (under Root Actions) if you have root access.

Enable button > Choose Pin or Password > Enter Pin or Password > Save

NOTE: This will only turn on and set the PIN/password. It will not modify any settings regarding how long the screen needs to be off before the lock goes in place. This can be modified when in the away from home state in Settings>Security. We have ours set to 5 minutes after sleep.